The year 1966 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events in 1966.

For the American TV schedule, see: 1966-67 American network television schedule.

Events

• January 3 Hullabaloo shows promotional videos of The Beatles songs "Day Tripper" and "We Can Work It Out".
• January 8 Shindig! airs for the last time on ABC, with musical guests the Kinks and the Who.
• January 11 Dorothy Malone resumes the role of Constance Carson on Peyton Place (she had been temporarly replaced by Lola Albright).
• January 13 Tabitha is born on the Bewitched episode titled, "And Then There Were Three."
• February 1 KFBB-TV in Great Falls, Montana becomes the first station in that state to affiliate primarily with ABC.
• February 5 ABC Scope begins to devote itself exclusively to coverage of the Vietnam war.
• February 13 - The Rolling Stones make another appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
• February 15 Citing circumstances beyond his control, Fred Friendly resigns from CBS News.
• February 18 An Evening with Carol Channing airs on CBS.
• February 23 Television comes to Greece with the launch of ERT.
• February 27 Perry Mason airs its only color episode, "The Case of the Twice-Told Twist."
• March 30 The special Color Me Barbra, with Barbra Streisand, airs on CBS.
• April 18 The Academy Awards air in color for the first time, on ABC.
• May 15 The first Japanese popular Owarai variety show program, Shoten, debuts on Nippon Television Network, and will be watched by more than 25 million Japanese every week.
• June 5 The Beatles make a taped appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, debuting their music videos for "Rain" and "Paperback Writer."
• June ABS-CBN introduces color television to the Philippines, using NTSC.
• July 1 Color television is launched in Canada in both English and French, also using NTSC.
• July 10 Ultraman debuts on TBS in Japan. The character would spawn over 16 television adaptions over the next 40 years.
• July 16 The Miss Universe pageant goes color.
• July 30 - An all-time record United Kingdom television audience of more than 32,000,000 watches the England national football team beat West Germany 4-2 to win the FIFA World Cup at Wembley.
• August 6 In a post-fight interview, Howard Cosell honors Muhammad Ali's wishes to no longer be referred to as Cassius Clay, contrasting with the approach of most other sports reporters of the time.
• Summer Patrick McGoohan quits the popular spy series Danger Man (aired in the US as Secret Agent) after filming only two episodes of the fourth season, in order to produce and star in The Prisoner, which begins filming in September.
• September 8 The first episode of Star Trek ("The Man Trap") is aired.
• September 10 A night of firsts for the Miss America Pageant its first color TV broadcast and its first airing on NBC.
• September 11 - The Rolling Stones make another appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
• September 19 Color television comes to Alaska as KENI-TV airs the premiere episode of That Girl ("Don't Just Do Something, Stand There", which had aired in the "lower 48" on September 8).
• October 2 The four-part serial Talking to a Stranger, acclaimed as one of the finest British television dramas of the 1960s, begins transmission in the Theatre 625 strand on BBC2.
• October 6 After quickly cancelling The Tammy Grimes Show, ABC fills the void by launching a prime-time edition of The Dating Game. The show's success leads to The Newlywed Game's own prime-time edition in January 1967.
• October 15 A TV version of the musical Brigadoon is telecast on ABC as a special, using an updated script and story line and re-introducing some of the songs cut from the 1954 movie. The production stars Robert Goulet, Peter Falk and Sally Ann Howes, also featuring Edward Villella and Marlyn Mason. The special airs only one other time, in 1967, before disappearing completely.
• October 17 All of NBC's news programming begins airing in full-color.
• October 27 It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown airs for the first time on CBS.
• October 29 Actor William Hartnell makes his last regular appearance as the First Doctor in the concluding moments of Episode 4 of the Doctor Who serial The Tenth Planet. Actor Patrick Troughton briefly appears as the Second Doctor at the conclusion of the serial.
• November 5 Actor Patrick Troughton appears in his first full Doctor Who serial The Power of the Daleks as the Second Doctor.
• November 16 Cathy Come Home, one of the best-known plays ever to be televised in the UK, is presented in BBC1's The Wednesday Play anthology strand.
• November 19 First live 2-way satellite telecasts between Hawaii (KHVH-TV, now KITV) and the Mainland (ABC), via the Lani Bird satellite.
• December 18 CBS airs the television adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas for the first time.
• December 21 A Christmas Memory, a recounting of Truman Capote's childhood experiences as captured in his 1956 memoir, is adapted for television on ABC Stage 67. Frank Perry directs, Capote himself narrates, and Geraldine Page (in an Emmy-winning performance) stars.
• December 24 WPIX in New York City premieres the Yule Log Christmas special which ran every year from 1966 to 1989, but returned in 2001.

Also in 1966

• The 1951 1953 CBS sitcom Amos & Andy is pulled from syndication broadcast due to complaints from civil rights organizations.
• Macdonald Carey starts reciting the epigram "Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives" at the beginning of his dramatic serial, Days of our Lives, a tradition that continues today, over a decade after his death.

Debuts

• January 2 Ultra Q premieres on TBS in Japan (1966).
• January 3 - Eye Guess debuts on NBC-TV Daytime (1966 1969)
• January 12 Batman debuts on ABC (1966 1968).
• April 5 The Money Programme debuts on BBC2 (1966 present).
• June 6 Till Death Do Us Part debuts on BBC1.
• June 27 Dark Shadows premieres on ABC (1966 1971).
• July 4 - Showdown & Chain Letter both debuted on NBC Daytime (Canceled on October 14)
• July 11 The Newlywed Game premieres on ABC (1966 1974).
• July 17 Ultraman premieres on TBS in Japan (1966 1967).
• September 8 Star Trek premieres on NBC (1966 1969); That Girl premieres on ABC (1966 1971); Tarzan premieres on NBC (1966 1968).
• September 9 The Green Hornet premieres on ABC (1966 1967); The Time Tunnel premieres on ABC (1966 1967)
• September 12 The Monkees premieres on NBC (1966 1968); Family Affair premieres on CBS (1966 1971); The Iron Horse and The Rat Patrol premiere on ABC (both 1966 1968).
• September 13 - The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. premieres on NBC (1966 1967).
• September 17 Mission: Impossible premieres on CBS (1966 1973).
• September 20 Rue des Pignons premieres on SRC (1966 1977).
• October 9 Rocket Robin Hood premieres (1966 1969).
• October 11 SRC launches its first made-in-Quebec sitcom, Moi et l'autre (1966 1971).
• October 17 The Hollywood Squares premieres on NBC daytime (1966 1980).
• December 23 Hoolihan & Big Chuck premieres on WJW-TV, Cleveland, Ohio, United States (1966 1979)
• July 18 The Australian version of Play School premieres on that country's ABC (1966 present).
• The 700 Club premieres (1966 present).
• W-FIVE premieres (1966 present).
• Wojeck premieres (1966 1968).

Television shows

1940s

• Meet the Press (1947 present).
• Candid Camera (1948 present).
• The Ed Sullivan Show (1948 1971).
• Bozo the Clown (1949 present).
• Come Dancing (UK) (1949 1995).

1950s

• Truth or Consequences (1950 1988).
• What's My Line (1950 1967).
• Love of Life (1951 1980).
• Search for Tomorrow (1951 1986).
• Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951 present).
• American Bandstand (1952 1989).
• The Guiding Light (1952 present).
• The Honeymooners (1952 1970).
• The Today Show (1952 present).
• Panorama (UK) (1953 present).
• The Good Old Days (UK) (1953 1983).
• Face the Nation (1954 present).
• The Milton Berle Show (1954 1967).
• The Secret Storm (1954 1974).
• The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962 1992).
• Captain Kangaroo (1955 1984).
• Dixon of Dock Green (UK) (1955 1976).
• Gunsmoke (1955 1975).
• The Lawrence Welk Show (1955 1982).
• This Is Your Life (UK) (1955 2003).
• Armchair Theatre (UK) (1956 1968).
• As the World Turns (1956 present).
• Opportunity Knocks (UK) (1956 1978).
• The Edge of Night (1956 1984).
• What the Papers Say (UK) (1956 present).
• The Sky at Night (UK) (1957 present).
• Perry Mason (1957 1966)
• Blue Peter (UK) (1958 present).
• Grandstand (UK) (1958 2007).
• Bonanza (1959 1973).
• Juke Box Jury (1959 1967, 1979, 1989 1990).
• The Bell Telephone Hour (1959 1968).

1960s

• My Three Sons (1960 1972).
• The Andy Griffith Show (1960 1968).
• Four Corners (Australia) (1961 present).
• The Mike Douglas Show (1961 1981).
• Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color(1961 1969).
• Combat! (1962 1967).
• Match Game (1962 1969, 1973 1984, 1990 1991, 1998 1999).
• The Beverly Hillbillies (1962 1971).
• The Late Late Show (Ireland) (1962 present).
• The Lucy Show (1962 1968).
• General Hospital (1963 present).
• Petticoat Junction (1963 1970).
• The Doctors (1963 1982).
• Another World (1964 1999).
• Bewitched (1964 1972).
• Daniel Boone (1964 1970).
• Flipper (1964 1967)
• Gilligan's Island (1964 1967).
• Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (1964 1970).
• Jeopardy! (1964 1975, 1984 present).
• Peyton Place (1964 1969).
• Top of the Pops (1964 2006).
• Days of our Lives (1965 present).
• Get Smart (1965 1970).
• Green Acres (1965 1971).
• Hogan's Heroes (1965 1971).
• I Dream of Jeannie (1965 1970).
• Lost in Space (1965 1968).
• The Dean Martin Show (1965 1974).
• Tom and Jerry (1965 1972, 1975 1977, 1980 1982).

Ending this year

• January 4 Rawhide (1959-1966)
• January 8 Shindig! (1964 1966). Replaced by Batman.
• February 6 Mister Ed (1961 1966).
• March 19 The Donna Reed Show (1958 1966).
• March 21 - Ben Casey (1961 1966).
• April 1 The Flintstones (1960 1966).
• April 7 Danger Man (UK) (1960 1961; 1964 1966).
• April 8 The Addams Family (1964 1966).
• April 12 McHale's Navy (1962 1966).
• May 4 - The Patty Duke Show, (1963 1966)
• May 12 The Munsters (1964 1966).
• June 1 The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961 1966).
• July 3 Ultra Q (Japan) (1966).
• August 29 Hullabaloo (1965 1966). Replaced by The Monkees.
• September 3 The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952 1966).
• September 4 My Favorite Martian (1963 1966).
• October 14 - Showdown & Chain Letter.
• December 16 WJW-TV's Shock Theater (1963 1966). Replaced by Hoolihan & Big Chuck Show
• Ready Steady Go! (1963 1966).
• This Hour Has Seven Days (1964 1966).

Births

• January 2 Rosie Millard, UK television news reporter.
• January 9 Giselle Blondet, Puerto Rican actress and show host.
• February 19 Justine Bateman, actress on Family Ties.
• May 20 Mindy Cohn, actress on The Facts of Life.
• June 26 Sara Stewart, actress.
• June 30 Mike Tyson, boxer.
• July 3 - Sandra Lee, author, chef and television presenter.
• July 11 Debbe Dunning, actress.
• August 14 Halle Berry, actress.
• September 9 Adam Sandler, actor.
• November 2 David Schwimmer, actor, Friends.
• December 21 Kiefer Sutherland, Canadian actor 24
• December 27 Bill Goldberg, wrestler

Deaths

• March 3 William Frawley, actor who co-starred in I Love Lucy and My Three Sons.
• March 3 Alice Pearce, actress (Gladys Kravitz #1 on Bewitched)
• June 19 Ed Wynn, comedian
• September 14 Gertrude Berg, actress (The Goldbergs)
• December 15 Walt Disney.

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